Viper's Bite: The Other Rogers

4.

Sally slowly woke up only to find herself in an unfamiliar room. She was on what seemed to be a cot and there was a toilet and sink just through a small door. The shower stood in the corner of the tiny bathroom while the wardrobe stood at the foot of her bed. The entire apartment was smaller than her old bedroom. She felt stiff and sore with bruises covering her entire body. Looking down, she found herself in a pair of shorts that were much shorter than any decent woman would wear, her tank top was tight and left little to the imagination as well. Standing proved to be difficult but she did it. Stretching her body up towards the ceiling, she found herself groaning as many of her joints popped while her stiff muscles restricted the movement. After a few minutes and taking care of her personal needs, she tried to change into a different outfit only to find the wardrobe full of matching items to what she already wearing in different colors. She tried to run her hands through her hair in frustration, key word tried. She found herself rubbing her head where her hair once was instead. There wasn't a mirror in her room but she knew from the feel of her head that it was shaved. Who would shave her head? Why would they shave her head? 

Panic began to fill her being as she tried to remember what happened after hugging Howard. Sally couldn't remember anything. She began to worry about how long she was out and what else they had done. Why was she being treated as a prisoner when all she had done was agreed to help them with their serum testing. Had she hurt Howard in her unstable fog? 

As Sally sat in the corner, curled up around herself while trying to think through what had happened and plagued herself with the questions of what if, two men entered her space. 

"Hello fraulein. We have much to discuss with you. It would appear you are untrained and we aren't sure how to teach you since you would hurt anyone who tried to go against you. You don't know your own strength nor do you have the technique of any sort of self defense already established. This makes our job nearly impossible. At least your brother was taught to be a soldier prior to getting the serum so all he had to adjust to was the amount of strength he used on his opponents."

The other man was taller and slightly thinner than the one who continued to talk to her. 

"Who are you two?"

The quiet one stepped forward. "Ah, excuse us Miss. I am Dr. Whitehall and this is my associate Arnim Zola. You will refer to him as Zola and myself as Doctor or Whitehall."

Sally sat and watched the men carefully. She noticed how they were careful to move slow and not startle her however, it did nothing to settle her nerves at their german accents or the way that they watched her like a new bomb they wanted to tear apart and learn what made it tick. 

"Where are Peggy and Howard?"

Whitehall smiled again as Zola seemed to sweat a bit. "Well child, do you want the truth or a happy lie?"

Sally knew then that she wasn't going to like the answer. Closing her eyes and looking down before raising her head and meeting Whitehall's eyes, "The truth is preferable."

He tilted his head while Zola's eyes widened. "You are most certainly a surprise. Are you aware that Zola was there when Sergeant Barnes met his demise? He heard his scream from his hiding place and when your brother captured him, he offered no condolences." Zola was sputtering at the man next to him. He didn't understand why Whitehall was trying to push Sally's buttons. Instead, she shook her head once, not allowing her eyes to focus on Zola. "None of that answers my question as to where Mr. Stark and Ms. Carter are."

Zola stepped up this time, afraid of what else Whitehall would say to try and test the woman's control. "Mr. Stark is working on an invention to try and reverse this new development within you. Ms. Carter, as you called her, gave you to us to run our own tests on and to see if there is anything viable about the newest serum that runs through your veins. She will check on you monthly unless otherwise called in due to new developments."

Sally sat back on her bed. Howard cared but Peggy had turned on her. She figured she would have been treated as fairly as her brother had been when he received the serum but instead she was handed to two of the top Hydra operatives. She dropped her head and sighed, "Where do we begin?"

The men were startled by her acceptance of her new position in life and were laughing at how she obviously had misread the situation when she met their gazes with a glare of her own. "I know there is no sense in fighting Carter. Don't assume I am stupid simply because I refuse to give her any more reason to punish me."

Zola smiled directly at her and told her they needed to draw blood and spinal fluid to see how the serum was affecting different parts of her system. She laid on her stomach and told them to restrain her because she knew this would be painful. They raised a brow but did as she instructed before getting to work n the samples. Whitehall decided he wanted to test her healing abilities too while they were there and began systematically slicing her back open. The sound of blood dripping onto the bed and then to the floor made her bite back her screams. It hurt, a lot, but she refused to give them the satisfaction. 

The tests and torment went on daily for months. True to her word Peggy appeared monthly. On the same day every month. The last visit being the worst because she actually shot Sally in the leg just to see if it hurt still and to test how long it took to heal. They continued to push forward on her threshold for pain tolerance and to see what would be effective torture techniques to use on the captured Hydra agents. Before long, it was a year later. The war had ended but the pain didn't. Zola had been pulled off "Project Viper" and moved to a more science oriented one in which he created an algorithm or something like that. Sally only heard bits and pieces from the guards who dropped food off to her once a week. Whitehall had performed many surgeries on her and tested how long she could go without food or water. He needed her healthy enough to endure his other procedures though so, he fed her once a week and gave her a couple cups of water a day. 

Then it happened, one night a guard told her to follow him. Sally was weak and had her body "studied" under the scalpel again so she more hobbled and slid along the wall rather than walked, but she pushed to follow him. Once they reached a new door, there was a dark truck sitting in the garage. She looked to the guard but all he did was nod at the back of the truck. She climbed in and found several others inside, including Whitehall. 

Swallowing hard, she knew she had no chance of escape and secretly wondered if Hydra could possibly be any worse than Shield.